The following discussion clip is from the Occupy Wall Street demand discussion list.
Here is the lead in post from CST:
before we change the wall st and white house we gotta change OWS community, http://occupywallst.org/forum/decentralization-of-leadership-at-top-levels-of-oc/
Nanook:
Centralization – Decentralization . . . WHAT TO DO? There is a psychology we’ve all been brainwashed with that needs to be described so we can escape a trap that plagues our whole world.
The notion of VOTING, which we all associate with DEMOCRACY, is a HUGE TRAP! Why? Because, unless the vote is 100% unanimous, then some group of people exert tyranny over the other group. This is directly at odds with another value we hold so highly: FREEDOM. But, as I said, this whole thing is locked in our minds because we’ve been brainwashed from birth believing that a yes / no vote was the ONLY way it could possibly be. And the reason we so completely accept it is that human EMOTIONAL psychology is predominantly structured around FEAR. AND, fear is predominantly processed in our brains as FIGHT or FLIGHT. That is our brains are WIRED to quickly sort out a two solution problem. As I’m sure you are guessing, this is simple to state and complex in practice. For those with deeper interests, check out http://A3society.org brain structure tab.
For OWS, here is my view on this:
To be successful, OWS needs BOTH forms of organization, centralization and decentralization, at the SAME TIME! I know. This is where your brain goes into convulsions. But just two more factors can easily clear this up: TIME and APPLICATION.
Centralization is important for: interactions between OWS and centralized external organizations – i.e. the U.S. Congress. ; summarizations for communications – i.e. telling the media what OWS is about; responding to external threats – i.e. organizing to maintain possession of the park as a focus geography.
Decentralization is important for: gathering information broadly; getting opinions; having discussions; disseminating results; allowing different approaches; providing checks and balances; providing resilience to attacks.
Implementation of this viewpoint: How I would support and address CST’s posting is by practicing what we are preaching. The KEY to doing this is: to take the HUMAN element out of the process WITHOUT taking the human element out of it! Is your brain in convulsions again? OK. The clarifying factors: PROCESS and OUTCOME. There are sound reasons to protect the identity of the people who are gluing things together, especially when the government itself is corrupt. BUT, if we let those people focus on PROCESS, and the process is transparent, inclusive and FAIR, then the OUTCOME can be fair as well.
1. Depend on the “hidden leaders” to MANAGE the process. Let them run the single COORDINATING communication tool – the occupywallst.org web site.
2. BUT, hold them accountable for addressing ALL the DECENTRALIZATION elements; and
3. Hold them responsible for transparency in summarizing the information.
